Sunday, 15 May 2016

The last thing our rulers want is democracy

The IMF, The World Bank, The OECD, LSE boffins, Corbyn, Cameron, Major, Branson, Clegg, Blair, Ashdown, Umunna, Brown, Obama and Yanis Varoufakis. Them, academia, most of the major business groups, multinationals and unions - all agree we should stay in the EU. It seems like an impossible mountain to climb. Polite society is very much agin the idea of leaving the EU.

All of them hold one quality. Prestige. Few evaluate them on what they actually say. It's who they are that carries weight. And if your argument is that all of these people say we should stay in therefore we should, you are saying that you have done no thinking of your own and that you trust these people are not lying to you.

When it comes to the Blairs and Camerons and Browns we can discount them. They have walked through the doorway to the world of elite politics that exists over and above even the EU. They believe they are good people working for good institutions with the best of intentions therefore anything that opposes them and their dominance must by definition be bad. And so for them the ends justify the means. Any lie will do.

But beneath such men are other men with their own ambitions. Politicians who have yet to walk through that door see the EU as a means to do so. And if they fail, there's always a cushy number to see out the back end of their failed careers. As to academia, as much as there are grants and jollies to be had, it suits their vanity to be called upon by the IMF and other prestigious organisations. It's all about prestige you see.

But this referendum is not about what they think. It's about what you think and what you want. What these people want is all of the power and all of the control over decision making. We have seen this time and again as the EU uses various legal instruments to reduce the standing of member states in international forums. They don't always succeed but it doesn't stop them trying.

What unites them is their belief in a planned economy. They have global designs and policy idea for every nation on earth. And it's not some super secret global conspiracy. They are quite open about it and academia is fully involved. Global governance is their goal. A conspiracy hidden in plain sight.

And at the very top of this is all of these prestigious institutions along with corporate lobby groups, super unions, global regulators and philanthropic foundations. You will find them at all of the UN bodies and conferences on climate and sustainable development. And in most respects it's not an evil or bad thing. Not for a minute do I question their motives. It's true that this is where corporates wield their influence to push for more regulation that will kill off the competition and it's a hotbed of corruption just like any other political body, but the motives of these leaders are not in doubt. They want a better world same as all of us.

The problem is that they think they know what is best for all of us. They think the public are foolish and will vote against what is in their interests. And sometimes, quite a lot of the time in fact, they are right. But that's not the point. The fact is that they are human and just as prone to hubris and self-deception and shortsightedness. The Euro is proof of that. European economies were not ready to converge yet they pressed ahead anyway, cooking the books to make the facts meet their expectations. The consequences are there for all to see.

The Irish know how this works better than we Brits. Unlike Brits, they were consulted by way of referendums. When they gave the "wrong" answer, they were told to go and vote again until they got it right. To our global elites democracy is inconvenient, bothersome, time consuming and irritating.

And so to maintain the illusion of democracy we have these empty voting rituals now and then whereby we appoint MEPs, but MEPs while they are in office are no accountable in any meaningful sense. They are overpaid button pushers, most of whom have no idea what they are voting for and are blissfully unaware that most of what they vote on is decided well in advance at the global level. But they serve as the perfect illusion of democracy. It's just enough democratic fanfare to get away with it.

But in the true sense of the word "democracy", ie people weilding the power, there is none to speak of. The system will respond with delay and it will slow the pace of its activities if it meets any serious protest but very little stands in the way of their globalisation agenda. And that's how they like it. That's why they don't want Brexit.

They don't want Britain having its own voice. They don't want the government working for the people. They don't want media scrutiny and they don't want the public sticking their noses in where they are not wanted. They want to keep it mundane and uninteresting and off the radar. They do not want democratising influences and they don't want the plebs interfering with their grand designs.

And it's easy to write us sceptics off as cranks because we are the ones who have to explain it all to a public with short attention spans and little patience. We have to do detail whereas they can simply nurture ignorance, pumping out the vapid and empty sentiments. The average hack or back bencher has very little conception of the big picture and lacks the curiosity to find out. They are the last people to ask what is going on. They live deep inside the bubble and depend on their officials and focus groups to tell them what's going on.

In the end, this is not about economics. This is purely a question of who governs us. Should we maintain the direction of travel we are no longer to be governed at all. We are to be ruled by a minority elite untempered by democracy. By removing ourselves from the political process we are entrusting all of the power in the hands of an unaccountable few, for whom the ends always justify the means. When in history has that ever been a good idea?

By voting to remain in the EU you are saying that you trust these people and trust they will rule in your interests. That's for you to decide and that's a choice only you can make. But you had better be sure. Because this is the last time you will ever get a say in it.